the race. Your digestion is slowing down - hence the dry mouth and butterflies - but your breathing should be speeding up, your heart rate increasing and sugar and fat pouring into the blood. Good things if you are racing. – CC(O)C(=O)OIt might be a cliché

was placed round my neck (great touch), my timing chip was cut off then I had my photo taken. I managed a pose! I don’t know how, I was desperate for a drink and was struggling to walk in a straight line. I picked up my goody bag and found a drink

with my friends, so I thought that a step up in training would be fairly straightforward: keep running, remind myself how to swim, learn to cycle in cleats. Boom. Win race, achieve well-deserved glory and go to the World Championships in Auckland. Ahem

. Rhayader 'Round the Lakes' 20, (Powys, March 19) Not so easy Rhayader Last year's race photo (right) gives a glimpse of racing at its very best. Not only is the Rhayader Round the Lakes one of the toughest pre-London warm-up races on the calendar. Taking

The Fear: Tackling Hard HillsThe Fix: Put it in PerpectiveIn a race, focus on the fact that the hill makes up a tiny percentage of the race distance, advises running coach and  former Boston Marathon winner Lisa Rainsberger. To conquer your dread

will stand out if you're simply wearing your running kit.Bottoms UpI began the race with a single aim: to have as much fun as possible, and if that meant running slowly and soaking up the wine and atmosphere, then so be it. I just had to run round within

racing could get up to speed by entering the Borrowdale Fell Race in August which climbs 7,000 feet during a 17-mile course. If you really want to challenge yourself before the race, try Ramsay's Round in Scotland - runners have to climb 24 peaks in 24

-mile race pace and the second 800m all-out. Build to a peak Conventional Thinking: You should gradually build up to a training peak, starting with slow base work and adding speedwork, before you race. Uncommon Wisdom: Train the same year-round

Q I’m a 33-year-old female, and after being collected by the ‘slow police’ after 19 miles in last year’s Berlin Marathon, I’m desperate to get my time down in this autumn’s race. I guess I should do speedwork but I don’t know what my targets should

, and rode and ran well to finish the race in 1:37. Since then, he’s vowed to properly get to grips the concept of open-water swimming. He’s been getting up at 4.30am to drive round the M25 to Heron Lake and practice swimming there, and says he will do